Street-car fender.



Patented Dec. 26, I899.

J. u. .PARMELEE. STREET CAB FENDER.

(Application filed may 3, 1899.)

(No Model.)

WITNESSES:

JHRzrmeZee BY [1 ATTORN n5: NORRIS PETERS 00.. vnormfimov wmsnmoron, D. c

CNITEID STAT S PATENT FFIcE.

JOHN H. PARMELEE, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

STREET-CAR FENDER.

sPEeItIcA'TIoN formingpart of Letters Patent No. 639,823, dated December as, 1899. Application filed May 3, 1899'. Serial No. 715 ,464. (N model.)

.To all whom it may concern: H

Be it known that I, J OHN H. PARMELnE, 'a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Car Fenders; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain improvements in fenders for street railway-cars, but more particularly has reference to fenders that are hinged to the car-body and held in position by means of a chain. In this style of fender one end of the chain is attached to the front of the fender-,while the other end of such chain is fastened over any suitable hook carried by the dashboard, so that the weight of the fender comes mainly on the chain, and the fender is usually held suspended by, this chain about eight inches above the road-bed,

' so that the rocking movements of the carbody will not cause the fender to jam against the rails but whenever an obstruction suddenly appears on the track it becomes necessary for the motorman or driver to drop the fender, so that such obstruction will not pass beneath the same. Now since the chain is taut and suspends a great part of the weight of the fender it is well nigh impossible for the motorman or driver to release the chain from the hook on the dashboard, so as to lower the fender, and this is, moreover, rendered still more difficult by the fact that both hands are occupied in attending to the brake and to the powereoontroller.

The object of my invention is to provide the car with an attachment whereby the chain may be secured so as to ordinarily hold the fender at the required distance above the track, while in an emergency the fender may be instantly dropped by the motorman without any appreciable effort or loss of time on his part and without interfering with his management of the brake and power-controller.

With this end in view myinvention consists in the details of construction and combination of parts,'such. as will be hereinafter fully described and then specifically be designated by the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures 1 and 2 are sectional elevations showing my im provement applied to a car-dashboardin connection with an ordinary hinged fender and illustrating,respectively, the positions of the parts when the fender is held at the usual elevation and when it is dropped.

Similar numbers of reference denote like parts in both figures of the drawings.

1 is the dashboard of a car, 2 an ordinary fender hinged at 3 to the car, and 4 a chain such as is usually secured to the front of the fender.

My improvement is exceedingly simple and comprises a clip 5, which may be slipped over the upper edge of the dashboard, and a lever 6, pivoted to said clip. The free end of the chain may be secured to the dashboard, if desired; but I have provided a hook 7 at the lower end of the clip and prefer to secure the chain to such hook. The lever 6,at its lower end, is formed into a hook 8,over which a link of the chain may be fastened, and the upper end of said lever then forced to the position shown at Fig. 1, where it Willbe observed that the strain is applied to this hook at a point outside the pivotal point of the lever,

and the latter is therefore held securely owing to such strain. The dashing of the hand of the motorman against the upper end of this lever will cause the chain to automatically become disengaged from the hook 8, and the fender will immediately drop.

The upper end of the chain may be secured to the dashboard or to the clip and either permanently or detachably, and I therefore do not wish to be limited in this respect; but if the chain is secured to the clip and the lat,- teris itself detachable from the dashboard the whole system, comprising the clip,fender, and chain, may readily be detached and applied at will to either end of the car.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new,and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of the fender hinged to the car-body, the clip carried by the dashboard, the chain whose ends are secured respectively to the front of said fender and to a lever pivoted to said clip at a point beyond the dashboard, the lower extremity of said I 5 lever beyond its pivotal point being formed into a hook While the upper end of said lever is elongated into a handle, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature 20 in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN H. PARMELEE.

WVitnesses:

H. S, TERRELL, M. T. LONGDEN. 

